1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a caliper brake assembly adapted for braking a disc, etc., in particular a brake assembly which can be modified by adding or subtracting structural modules or elements to change braking capacity.
2. Prior Art
Caliper brakes have been used for many years in widely varying applications in many types of equipment and, for an optimum design, a caliper brake assembly is designed specifically to meet particular design requirements. Main design parameter for the caliper brake assembly include horsepower to be absorbed, maximum disc size, brake shoe area, braking force applied normally to disc, etc., plus of course, other factors relating to dimensional or space limitations for installation of the brake assembly on the apparatus. Commonly, when selecting a braking system for a particular item, if an existing caliper brake assembly cannot be used "as is," or simply modified, a new caliper brake assembly is designed. Because the same item to be braked may operate in similar equipment within a wide range of different operating conditions, braking capacity will likely vary considerably. Consequently, for optimum design, even for use in similar equipment, different brake designs would be required. Thus, over the years, manufacturers and equipment suppliers have been obliged to supply many different sizes and types of caliper brake assemblies, and stocking and servicing of these many types of brakes require considerable inventory of parts which is costly for manufacturing, supplying and servicing.
To give one example of the proliferation of brake parts, a brake designed to operate with a disc of a certain thickness cannot easily be adapted to brake a disc of widely different thickness without requiring replacement of caliper arms and/or brake shoes. Thus, even for a relatively simple change, such as the change of disc thickness as above, additional parts would be necessary which of course would require additional stocking of parts.